Nasa Blames Worker Misuse For March Shuttle Accident

June 21, 1985|By James Fisher of The Sentinel Staff

CAPE CANAVERAL — A broken metal connector was the last link in a chain of failures and improper procedures that caused a shuttle work platform to collapse in March, damaging Discovery and injuring a worker, says a NASA report released Thursday.

The work bucket fell in the shuttle processing hangar March 8, ripping through the shuttle's closed payload bay door, causing $200,000 in damage and a one-week delay in processing.

An employee of Lockheed Corp., the shuttle processing contractor, suffered a broken leg and did not return to work until this month, said company spokesman Stuart Shadbolt.

The report was done by a safety review panel, which concluded that a metal connecting link snapped from overstress caused by repeated misuse of the work platform by Lockheed employees.

The 3-by-5-foot platform was one of four in the hangar that are lowered on telescoping poles from a bridge to allow workers to service the shuttle. The link was part of an assembly that connected the hoisting winch lines inside the telescoping poles to the platform.

Safety panel members called the accident ''the logical culmination of a series of events and conditions which pushed the mechanical components to and beyond their limits.''

Workers had regularly operated the platforms improperly and didn't notice a warning posted four days before the accident that the platform was unsafe, the report said.

In addition, Lockheed violated rules of NASA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration by not regularly inspecting work buckets. Inspections of all work platforms after the accident showed that most connecting links ''were elongated,'' indicating overstress, the report added. Shadbolt said no disciplinary action has been taken against any workers, but Lockheed ordered a wide-ranging review of safety procedures.

He said he did not know why the company had not regularly inspected the work platforms as required or why the equipment was operated improperly.

Lockheed began overseeing shuttle processing in October 1983, and the report acknowledged that ''this company inherited the system and a certain tradition of its misuse from NASA and its predecessor contractors.''